Are you as cheap as I am??

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Brooks James

VET, CPT, Huey Medevac Pilot
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I’ve been collecting parts for 11 years for my 70 Dart and I’m close to finishing up. I’ve always been on a tight budget so I had to scrounging horse trade and wait for deals. Here’s my story. I bought a lot of the parts during the Great Recession as prices were great.

70 Dodge Dart with absolutely no rust and fresh paint drove it from Nevada to Florida $3500
Reman 92 360 magnum long block $350
A local machine shop let me have it for what they had in it as the
Motor had sat for two years and the owner hadn’t picked it up it also had a low rise mopar
aluminum intake on it
Holley 650 double pumper in excellent condition traded the intake for it $0 dollars
904 trans with manual valve body and 3500 street converter all used of course. $300
Rear ended housing 8 3/4 $200
3.91 742 case sure grip that I had rebuilt $600
New rotors calipers drums brake shoes wheel cylinders $300
Crosswind intake $150
MP distributor $80
MSD 6 al $120
Shorten driveshaft with new joints $125
Wire fuse panels rocker switches
Etc &200
Aluminum radiator $100
Hi volume water pump $70
SpRk plugs and wires $40
La timing cover $20
Double roller chain sit up $70
La oil pan $20
Hi vol oil pump $50
Harmonic balancer $75
340 exhaust manifolds $100
Exhaust system with performance mufflers $300
Tires $300 rear
Tires $40 front new bought at garage sale
Stock rally wheels $150
Master cylinder $35
Upholstery $500 it already had a new head liner in it
Used nitrous kit $200
So for around 10k I’ve got a car that looks and sounds good and will haul ***
 
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I've got a problem..... I'm rich on "cheap" but poor on "patience"
 
Congratulations. It looks like prices have about doubled on advertised stuff over the past ten or eleven years. I believe your patience paid off big time, but that performance will be harder to duplicate as time marches on.
 
I have a 1970 Swinger 340 and I’m like this with that car.....I have plastic totes full of NOS stuff I got cheap over the years, Good used factory original parts, also some new stuff too. The only parts the car needs now you can buy new....then restoration time I hope....been on the way back burner for close to 20 years....hope to get at it some day
 
I’ve been collecting parts for 11 years for my 70 Dart and I’m close to finishing up. I’ve always been on a tight budget so I had to scrounging horse trade and wait for deals. Here’s my story. I bought a lot of the parts during the Great Recession as prices were great.

70 Dodge Dart with absolutely no rust and fresh paint drove it from Nevada to Florida $3500
Reman 92 360 magnum long block $350
A local machine shop let me have it for what they had in it as the
Motor had sat for two years and the owner hadn’t picked it up it also had a low rise mopar
aluminum intake on it
Holley 650 double pumper in excellent condition traded the intake for it $0 dollars
904 trans with manual valve body and 3500 street converter all used of course. $300
Rear ended housing 8 3/4 $200
3.91 742 case sure grip that I had rebuilt $600
New rotors calipers drums brake shoes wheel cylinders $300
Crosswind intake $150
MP distributor $80
MSD 6 al $120
Shorten driveshaft with new joints $125
Wire fuse panels rocker switches
Etc &200
Aluminum radiator $100
Hi volume water pump $70
SpRk plugs and wires $40
La timing cover $20
Double roller chain sit up $70
La oil pan $20
Hi vol oil pump $50
Harmonic balancer $75
340 exhaust manifolds $100
Exhaust system with performance mufflers $300
Tires $300 rear
Tires $40 front new bought at garage sale
Stock rally wheels $150
Master cylinder $35
Upholstery $500 it already had a new head liner in it
Used nitrous kit $200
So for around 10k I’ve got a car that looks and sounds and will haul ***
Hard to tell without a cheap picture...or 2.
 
Hard to tell without a cheap picture...or 2.
Pics coming it’s in my tiny 1 car garage with stuff all on it and around it the only shots that would show much of anything would be from the rear and rear quarters not quite roadworthy yet
 
Ok.. I bet these cars cost about 1,000.00 including parts labor and transportation to manufacture. Hundreds maybe even thousands a day. And it takes us ten years and 10,000.00 to make it close to new?
 
Pics coming it’s in my tiny 1 car garage with stuff all on it and around it the only shots that would show much of anything would be from the rear and rear quarters not quite roadworthy yet
lol, I have one of those from day's gone by

IMG_4562.JPG
 
$900 car I drove home, 360 left over from my first pick-up, 4-speed and scattershield left over from 69 Dart, free 8-3/4 housing from Demon that was sold for parts, $350 for Moser A-body axles with LBP and B-body flange offset, $275 for disc brake conversion, $50 for manual steering box, 3.23 SG left over from 69 Dart...cheap, yes, but it's gonna cost a bunch to get the little pieces needed to put everything together.
 
$900 car I drove home, 360 left over from my first pick-up, 4-speed and scattershield left over from 69 Dart, free 8-3/4 housing from Demon that was sold for parts, $350 for Moser A-body axles with LBP and B-body flange offset, $275 for disc brake conversion, $50 for manual steering box, 3.23 SG left over from 69 Dart...cheap, yes, but it's gonna cost a bunch to get the little pieces needed to put everything together.
You’re right it’s the little stuff tha
T gets you
 
The answer. Maybe even cheaper!
IF a $ went further, I would be a big spender!
Little birds flying right over my head, going "cheap, cheap, cheap" all the time. Or so I am told.
 
The answer. Maybe even cheaper!
IF a $ went further, I would be a big spender!
Little birds flying right over my head, going "cheap, cheap, cheap" all the time. Or so I am told.
I’m pretty damn cheap I’ve been known to rinse and save ziploc baggies
My son is embarrassed by me
Telling others that I am
During the recession I almost published a “cheapskate manifesto “
 
I split two ply toilet paper, and blow my nose in it before wiping... LOL
 
I don't consider myself cheap, I think I'm more frugal. If something comes up & it's out of my price range, I pass on it. I was looking for a set of solid roller lifters so not to have to bush the lifter bores or tube the oil passage. I found a set from a fellow racer but one of the rollers was bound up & not repairable my me. I looked at various sites & check recommendations. I couldn't justify over a grand for lifters, I waited & a set showed up from one of our members that were within my budget. I snatched them up & check all of the clearances & they will work out well, the block will soon be off to the machine shop soon.
 
I don't consider myself cheap, I think I'm more frugal. If something comes up & it's out of my price range, I pass on it. I was looking for a set of solid roller lifters so not to have to bush the lifter bores or tube the oil passage. I found a set from a fellow racer but one of the rollers was bound up & not repairable my me. I looked at various sites & check recommendations. I couldn't justify over a grand for lifters, I waited & a set showed up from one of our members that were within my budget. I snatched them up & check all of the clearances & they will work out well, the block will soon be off to the machine shop soon.
Good for you
 
I don't consider myself cheap, I think I'm more frugal. If something comes up & it's out of my price range, I pass on it. I was looking for a set of solid roller lifters so not to have to bush the lifter bores or tube the oil passage. I found a set from a fellow racer but one of the rollers was bound up & not repairable my me. I looked at various sites & check recommendations. I couldn't justify over a grand for lifters, I waited & a set showed up from one of our members that were within my budget. I snatched them up & check all of the clearances & they will work out well, the block will soon be off to the machine shop soon.
Yep, it's all in what you value. I find, it usually works itself out .
 
You can't be too cheap, or it will bite you in the @ss later...
 
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